1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a Group III nitride single crystal, a device used for the method, and a Group III nitride single crystal obtained by the method.
2. Related Background Art
A Group III nitride semiconductor has been used, e.g., in the field of heterojunction high-speed electron devices or photoelectron devices (such as a semiconductor laser, light emitting diode, and sensor). In particular, gallium nitride (GaN) has attracted considerable attention. As a conventional method of producing a gallium nitride single crystal, a so-called sublimation method has been employed (see, e.g., Jpn. J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 36, L184-L186, 1997 and Journal of Crystal Growth, 237-239 (2002) 922-925). In the sublimation method, gallium nitride powder is heated and sublimed at about 1000° C., and then is cooled and recrystallized, thereby growing a gallium nitride single crystal. In this method, however, while the gallium nitride single crystal is grown, the grown gallium nitride is decomposed due to heating. Therefore, the conventional method has the disadvantage of low production efficiency. This is a problem not only for the GaN single crystal, but also for AlN or InN single crystals.
Therefore, with the foregoing in mind, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method of manufacturing a Group III nitride single crystal that can suppress decomposition during the crystal growth and provide efficient manufacture.